The Far-Reaching Implications of the PSU Child Abuse Scandal

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania—Nestled in a part of the state known colloquially as “Happy Valley,” venerable Penn State University has been rocked by the biggest scandal in college history, one that brought about the firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno and President Graham Spanier. But could this widespread child rape case involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky also be linked to the disappearance of District Attorney Ray Gricar on April 15, 2005?

On November 5, local authorities arrested Sandusky and charged him with 40 counts of sex crimes committed against—at least for the time being—nine young boys, including six felony offenses that could land him in prison for 480 years. All of the children were seized upon via a charity program called the Second Mile that Sandusky founded in 1977.

A scathing 23-page grand jury report chronicled Sandusky’s perversions, which included descriptions of his pedophile activities that are too graphic for this newspaper to reprint. Many of the sexual acts with underprivileged or troubled young boys were carried out in locker rooms located on the Penn State campus.

Equally as disturbing is the fact that Sandusky’s backyard overlooks a playground that is a part of the Lemont Elementary School. Moreover, a wide array of local residents have personally told this reporter—who resides in Lemont, Pa.—that officials at Penn State, the Second Mile, and within the athletic department were well aware of Sandusky’s pedophile activities and have covered them up for over a decade.

But the biggest bombshell arrived via articles by Mark Madden that appeared in the Beaver County Times. Madden asserts that Sandusky may have been pimping out young boys from his Second Mile charity group to rich PSU donors. If so, it would explain why, even after Sandusky was caught red-handed by current Penn State wide receiver coach Mike McQueary sodomizing a 10-year old boy in a shower room in 2002, he still maintained an on-campus office, computer, phone, parking pass and full access to the weight rooms. A widespread pedophilia network would explain why, even after being exposed as a sexual deviant and “retired” in 1999, Sandusky still had cart blanche at PSU until a week before his arrest.

To raise even more suspicions, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz—senior vice president with oversight of the university police—were both charged by the grand jury with perjury and failure to inform the proper authorities in regard to cases of sexual abuse. Also, university president Spanier permitted two outlandish university-sanctioned events—CUNTFEST and Sex Faire—to occur on campus during his tenure.

All these sordid details inevitably lead to speculation regarding the suspicious 2005 disappearance of Gricar. Profiled on such television shows as Unsolved Mysteries and Investigation Discovery, Gricar vanished without a trace in Lewisburg, Pa. At that time, the only clue detectives found was his abandoned car. Three months later fishermen located Gricar’s laptop computer—minus its hard drive, which had been forcibly removed—in the Susquehannah River. Strangely, in 1998 Gricar chose not to prosecute Sandusky after the first incident of child sexual abuse had surfaced despite having what was described as a “bitter taste in his mouth” about the Penn State football program.

Although this writer won’t mention names or titles, reliable sources have provided the following information:

• A well-known person of influence with business ties to the Second Mile purchased an automobile for one of the victims in order to insure their silence.

• The relative of a PSU employee involved in this scandal has close ties with Sandusky.

• Another individual implicated in this debacle has an entire room in their home devoted to pornography.

• A person directly involved in the Penn State controversy still continued to golf and attend Sandusky’s charity events even after becoming aware of his deviant acts.

As shockwaves continue to reverberate through Happy Valley, this writer personally witnessed upwards of 5,000 students rioting in downtown State College on the evening of November 9 following Paterno’s dismissal. Car windows were smashed, a news van overturned, while signposts and light fixtures were demolished. Considering the mayhem and disappointment felt by everyone in Centre County, questions are now being taken seriously as to a possible connection between Jerry Sandusky’s alleged pedophile pimp network and the possible murder of District Attorney Ray Gricar.

Many not familiar with conspiracy-related subjects find it difficult to accept the idea of powerful figures involved in a pedophile sex network because they’re not familiar with abduction operations conducted by a group called the Finders, the Franklin Scandal, a Washington, D.C. call-boy scandal operating during the Bush, Sr. administration, or Representative Barney Frank’s male lover conducting a homosexual prostitution ring from the basement of his apartment.

More importantly, this notion opens up the possibility that persons of power within our own community engaged in a wide-reaching conspiracy right under our own noses. Now, if Sandusky did pimp children to wealthy PSU donors while many of his associates kept it secret for the sake of the university’s reputation, then it also confirms that conspiracies do exist, and they can occur and are committed by those who we’d never suspect of being behind them.

We are reminded of the groundbreaking work of AMERICAN FREE PRESS reporter and former high-ranking Federal Bureau of Investigation officer Ted Gunderson, now deceased, who worked for years with attorney John deKamp, and warned us years ago that child sex rings were much bigger and much more active in America than anyone would admit and that many prominent public officials were involved in using children to satiate their perverse appetites.

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and author of over 50 books.